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Sesame Street Is Moving To HBO! But Why?

Todd-Spence

In probably the weirdest news concerning television this week, HBO has signed a deal to air the next five seasons of Sesame Street on HBO. That's right, the network who loves nothing more than blood, incest and beheadings wants to do business with the friendliest show ever. So why HBO? Apparently the money behind the deal was just too good for the company behind Sesame Street, the Sesame Workshop, to turn down.

Normally Street airs on PBS which is a publicly funded channel with only 10% of the show's funding coming from PBS. The rest of the show's funding came from licensing revenue and DVD sales. With this being the age of streaming, 2/3rds of Street's audience watched the program On Demand and not PBS at all. So it seems not only is hefty pay from HBO a good thing for Sesame Street's future, it's also a greater way for viewers and kids to continue watching the program through HBO GO and HBO Now. Of course, let's hope parents make sure those same kids don't click over to watch True Detective.

Of course HBO isn't looking for a grittier version of Sesame Street at all, it will be the same exact program that has existed for the last billion years. But maybe this time they'll include just a hair more Katy Perry because it is HBO afterall.